The present invention is directed to a system and method for authenticating and tracking expensive objects and, more particularly, to a system and method of packaging, trading, and creating a marketplace for standardized value, precious stone packages and to security authentication features and elements related thereto.
The world stock trading exchanges provide a very easy and convenient medium for issuing and trading in company shares. It is also easy to trade in certain well-known coins or in standardized bars of gold and the like. Their value can be easily traded and no specific or particularly difficult authentication processes of the merchandise is necessary.
This is not so at all with respect to precious stones, particularly diamonds. The prices of seemingly identical diamonds can vary in price considerably. Valuation of diamonds cannot be done on the spot. Authentication of diamonds that are actively traded poses an especially serious problem of authentication, including the substitution of fake or non-genuine diamonds for real diamonds, given the thousands of dollars price tag of individual diamonds. There is a need and desire in the marketplace for technology and a system that enable rapid, secure and impersonal exchanges that permit the purchase of diamonds in a very reliable and secure manner.
Presently, creating a marketplace in diamonds is compromised by counterfeit items in the supply chain or channels. The possibility of counterfeits creates the potential for unacceptable losses to purchasers, causing friction in trade and limiting the market to few sophisticated participants. What is needed is a way for customers to reliably authenticate the item, i.e., a standardized package of diamonds, before purchase, using technology widely in use by consumers worldwide, namely through the use of an Internet-ready cell phone. A second difficulty with creating a marketplace for diamonds is that owners may typically want to store their diamond merchandise with a third party, for example, a diamond warehouse, but require an authentic, convenient and highly reliable system for ascertaining that the specific goods are being held as agreed, without relying on the naked assurance of a third party alone. The creation and wide acceptance of such diamond exchanges and markets would further benefit from introducing standardized diamond packs of known or nominal monetary values that could be purchased and/or exchanged in unitary quantities without much regard to the parameters of the individual diamonds in each pack. Such a standardized marketplace product(s) would enable people to invest their assets in standardized diamond packets knowing that these assets are highly liquid and easily sold, traded, and/or converted to other asset categories.